Knowledge for the Afterlife

The Egyptian Amduat

Th. Abt / E. Hornung

154 pages, richly illustrated, ISBN 978-3-9525713-1-6, LivingHumanHeritage

WHY THE AMDUAT IS SIGNIFICANT

Second improved edition including index.

Every evening the sun becomes old and weak and finally sets behind the Western horizon. Yet, it rises again in the morning, rejuvenated. How is that possible? How could the sun for the Ancient Egyptians the Sungod become young and revitalized during the night, during his night journey? What happens during this time?

The Amduat is a description of the journey of the Sungod through the nightworld, that is also the world of the deceased. The knowledge contained in the Amduat is meant for the dead Pharaoh. But the text also recommends this knowledge for living beings. Thus, the journey of the Sungod can also be seen as a symbolic representation of an inner psychic process of transformation and renewal.

In the Amduat the night journey of the Egyptian Sungod is divided into twelve hours, each one of them containing an enormous amount of insight into the human psyche. The entire Amduat could be called the first «scientific publication» of humankind describing or mapping the dangers, but also the regenerative capabilities of the nightworld, providing answers to basic human questions. Symbolically speaking, if an individual can consciously accompany the Sungod on his journey through the netherworld, he or she can learn from him how to relate to these both dangerous and helpful forces. He or she would acquire an insight into the secret of eternal renewal and would thus obtain a feeling of being close to the immortal Sungod. That is why the Amduat says repeatedly:

«It is good for the dead to have this knowledge, but also for a person on earth, a remedy a million times proven.»

The aim of the Amduat is that the reader becomes conscious of the guiding function of the inner Sungod or of the «inner great human». The Amduat, written 3500 years ago, contains in a nutshell the knowledge necessary to reunite the individual soul with this inner guiding light. This knowledge was later more clearly differentiated by all great religions.

Living Human Heritage

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Theodor Abt (1947), born in Zurich, Switzerland; Ph.D. from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich 1977, 1973-79 project leader of overall regional development concepts for two Swiss mountain regions. Since 1975 Jungian Analyst in private practice. 1983-88 member of the board of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. Since 1990 Professor for Rural Sociology at the ETH. Since 1995, member of the board of the Research and Training Centre for Depthpsychology according to C.G. Jung and M.-L. von Franz, Zurich. Since 1988, President of the Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt. His research focuses on the relationship of the outer world with the needs of the inner unconscious world. Together wird Wilferd Madelung he is editor of the Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum (CALA) series. Of his publications in German is available in English: Progress without Loss of Soul, 1990 and Dark Clouds over Europe, 2014. Erik Hornung (1933), born in Riga, Latvia, Ph.D. Univ. of Tubingen 1956, Professor of Egyptology Univ. of Basle, Switzerland, 1967-1998. His research has focused on the Valley of the Kings and the edition of the Books of the Netherworid; he published the first edition of the Amduat in 1963. Since 1988 Vice-President of the Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt. Of his many books in German, several have been translated into English: Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt. The One and the Many, 1982 (Paperback 1996); The Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity, 1990; The Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I., 1991; History of Ancient Egypt. An Introduction, 1999; Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, 1999; The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, 1999; The Secret Lore of Egypt, 2001.